Chinese girl's fate up to judge
By WOODY BAIRD
Associated Press
4-13-2004

AP Qin Luo He, the mother of a 5-year-old Chinese girl at the center of a custody dispute, breaks down in tears in court in Memphis. The judge now has a month to rule on the case.

Closing arguments focus on how 5-year-old ended up in foster care

MEMPHIS — A judge deciding the fate of a 5-year-old Chinese girl heard dramatically different accounts yesterday on how she ended up in foster care shortly after birth.

Now, Judge Robert Childers has a month to decide if Chinese citizens Shaoqiang and Qin Luo He must give up any claim to daughter Anna Mae so she can be adopted by an American couple, Jerry and Louise Baker.

In final arguments on a petition to terminate the Hes' parental rights, plaintiff's lawyer Larry Parrish described the birth parents as liars and frauds who want to take the girl from the only home she has known.

''Here ... what illegal aliens have asserted as their rights has placed in serious jeopardy the rights of an American citizen with a small and helpless child,'' Parrish said.

David Siegel, the Hes' lawyer, accused the Bakers of offering to be temporary foster parents while planning all along to keep Anna Mae as their own.

The Hes say they put Anna Mae in foster care when she was less than a month old because of financial hardships. At the time, He was charged with sexual assault but he eventually was acquitted.

While the criminal case was pending, He lost his graduate scholarship and student stipend at the University of Memphis and was out of work.

Soon after taking the child into their home, the Bakers began limiting parental visits, Siegel said. During a January 2001 argument, police were called and the Hes were told to leave the Baker home.

''You can't willfully abandon your child if there are people that are trying to prevent you from developing a relationship with the child,'' Siegel said.

Parrish said Mrs. He lied on a visa application to get in the United States and that her husband lied in court when he said they were married in China.

''They didn't think it was important to get married until we were in these proceedings.''

The Bakers contend Anna Mae will have a better life growing up with them rather than going to China with her parents.

''The rights of a small child are precious in our justice system,'' Parrish said. ''There is, and should not be, any level or degree to which our justice system will not extend itself to protect the rights of America's children.''

The Hes' parental rights can be lost, Parrish said, because they failed for at least four months to have contact with her or provide any care for her.

Siegel said the Hes first petitioned to get their daughter back in May 2000 and have continued that struggle since.

''We have to look at the actions of the Hes, not the words of Mrs. Baker,'' Siegel said.